I fully agree - its become such an expensive hobby. Gone are the days in late 60's / 70's when we used to swap stamps. Nowadays, thanks to the RM specialist support (most notably none) - it's all ebay and dealers making more than 200% profit.

Yeah, my rant is not about HM quitting or passing away, but thats the stopping point for me! And I suspect many others.

Somewhere people all ready have this in hand (stamp life after Machin) and I am certain a number of differing essays have already are been considered. Will it be Charles III or George VII time will only tell. As a GB collector I will certainly continue if I'm still here.

A new monarch could well be an opportunity for marginal collectors to pick up the hobby again - its a brilliant opportunity to start a new collection from scratch. Look what happened with post and go, because collectors were given a chance to embark on something new...